


Best left buried

by DoomFox



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Cussing, Dark Past, Emotions, Major Character Injury, Mild Sonadow?, Nothing screwy, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25280947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomFox/pseuds/DoomFox
Summary: After finally taking down the mad Doctor Robotnik for good, the orphaned young fox Miles Prower discovers an uncomfortable truth about himself.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	Best left buried

Tails hopped from his battle mech and grit his teeth as his feet hit the deck. He winced as he checked his right shoulder - blood from a gash, the result of a near miss with a chunk of shrapnel, covered his white glove.

He grunted. At least he was in better shape than the prone figure before him.

Covered with wounds, coughing up blood as he crawled away from his own destroyed machine, doctor Robotnik looked through broken glasses as the fox strode across the deck of the battered Egg Carrier, between the smashed carcasses of the ship's point-defence badniks. 

The human chuckled to himself and coughed through bloodied teeth. Alone, armed with proper weapons and a familiar ruthless streak, the fox had done what his blue brother never had - finally ended the reign of doctor Robotnik for good.

"Miles..." The doctor sputtered, as the fox drew close. "Never knew you were so... formidable..."

"What, are we on a first name basis now, _Ivo?_ " Tails grimly kneeled beside the doctor, medical kit in hand, and began to dress the human's wounds. He expressed none of the plucky cheer that he wore around his friends. The real Miles Prower was on full display, and very uneager to save the human's life.

"Hnn..." The doctor winced as the fox got to work on his damaged body. "You're saving my life?"

"Believe me..." cold blue eyes flickered to the Doctor's broken glasses. "I'd happily let you die right now... but Sonic wouldn't like that. "

"Heh..." The doctor coughed, wiping blood from his mouth. He looked around the deck of his battered ship. "It's fitting... of all the people to finally take me down, it's only right that it would be you..."

He should have ignored the doctor. He should have dismissed the statement as the ramblings of a dying man in shock.

But Miles' stupid, far-too-intelligent brain just had to know.

"what do you mean by that, egg-face?" The fox muttered, ears pricked .

The doctor laughed.

"Nothing... it's just... fitting that the... only one ruthless enough to kill Robotnik... would be another Robotnik..."

Miles paused in his work and shot a glare at the dying man. 

"What. Is that. Supposed to mean?!" 

Robotnik simply chuckled, grimacing, appearing less the maniacal doctor he had been and more... sad... tears appeared to be running down his face.

"I... miss your mother, Miles..." The doctor raised a quivering hand to his face. " I... miss her a lot... "

The glasses were removed, revealing Robotnik's eyes to the fox for the first time.

Blue.

Ice blue

"Don't..." The fox growled, a bloodstained finger shakily pointing at the doctor. "don't you even _dare_ suggest..."

The human heaved as he reached into his red coat. "I... have something I wanted to give you..." The doctor spoke harshly, blood clogging his throat, "in the... event you ever discovered who you... Truly were..."

The human held a small data disk in his hand. The doctor, suddenly a very different man to the maniacal tyrant that had threatened Mobius time and again, looked sadly around at the destruction surrounding them.

"all my life... all of my accomplishments... nothing but failure... " the human's blue eyes began to unfocus as they landed back on the fox before him. 

"But at least... if nothing else... at least I got to see my boy... grow..."

With that, the doctor's eyes glazed over... and a final shuddering breath left his lips.

..............................................

"Tails!!"

Amy Rose embraced the bloodied yellow fox as he released her and the others from their holding cell, hugging her rescuer tight as he stood limp. Sonic and Knuckles stood beside them, proudly looking upon their yellow friend.

"Knew you had it in ya!" Said Knuckles, clapping fox on the shoulder .

"You ever have any doubt in my little buddy?" Said Sonic, approaching Tails for a high-five .

Then he noticed the blood as Amy left the hug.

He raised an eyebrow. "Tails... where's Robotnik?"

The fox snapped his attention to the blue hedgehog, an ice-cold expression over his usually cheery face.

"Hanger." Tails muttered, briefly looking over the group before turning his back to them and making to leave.

The other three friends exchanged concerned looks before Sonic called after his brother. "Alive I hope?"

The fox paused in his tracks, and appeared to check something in his hand before slotting it into a pouch. 

"Yes. Unfortunately."

.............................................

Human and Mobian couplings had been taboo for centuries. In this part of the world a least. Such relations had been considered 'unnatural' and 'against the Gods' for an extremely long time, an attitude that, in the previous century, had largely changed.

Human-Mobian couplings had become increasingly common over the decades, as social attitudes changed and the old religions began to fade in relevence. But the two races, despite parallel evolution and shared genetic ancestry, could not produce biological children.

Project Rainbow was intended to change all that.

The program's objective had been to take genetic material from two parents - one human, one Mobian - and combine it, growing the child artificially. The service would be for such couples who wished for children of their own, without the need for adoption or surrogacy.

One such couple had headed the project. One Doctor Ivo Robotnik... and one Prower.

One Doctor Elsa. Kilo. Prower.

Tails slumped in his chair as he stared at the report. From the screen, the smiling yellow face of Doctor Prower glowed out at him. Beside her... Was the younger, hairier and far more sane face of Doctor Robotnik. 

Tails felt sick as he read on.

The project had been scrapped when Doctor Prower and the child, the first of Project Rainbow, had died. Robotnik, who had intended on marrying the female doctor and raising their child, had gone mad with grief. The project never took off again.

The deaths, of Doctor Prower and the child - Miles - were labelled as 'cause unknown '.

Tails stroked a finger over the smiling yellow face of the mother he had never known. He took a moment to save the image to his personal files, and ejected the data disc. He'd seen enough.

He stared at the disc laying in his ungloved hand. 

Nobody could know. Nobody could _ever_ know.

With a face like stone, the fox stood from his desk and set the disc on a workbench. He left... and returned moments later, a blaster in his hand.

He primed the weapon and pointed it directly at the disc. He paused for a moment, the image of the two doctors burned in his brain. He briefly wondered at the life he might have had... and pulled the trigger.

a brief pulse of energy vaporized the disc, leaving nothing but a scorch mark and smoke.

Tails pondered for a moment. His work wasn't finished. There was still one thing left to take care of.

slotting the weapon in his holster, he turned and walked with intent. He was going to have a little chat with their... guest.

................................................

Pain.

His entire body was pain.

It was a shame. He had been having a nice dream, too.

He had been dreaming of his wife... Happily holding his young son, as the child had begun to say it's first words.

"Papa?"

It was more than he ever could have asked for. The tiny orange ball of fluff that was... His child

The fox-woman turned to him, tears in her eyes yet happiness in her face..

"Ivo... what should we name him?"

The doctor tried to speak. couldn't. All he could do was look at the tiny infant. The child. That was _his_.

"Ivo?" His wife repeated again , concern etched on her orange-furred face. The child began to scream.

Ivo clawed at the walls that had begun surrounding him. He couldn't breathe, couldn't speak - his only instinct was to get to his wife and his child.

His wife cocked her head and her triangular ears perked. 

"why won't you get up, Ivo?"

Ivo tried. He did.

It was then he realised he was dreaming. and coming round.

He tried to say something to the woman he had never married, tried to say he was sorry... But his words were as limp as his body. 

"Hello?" His child said, big blue eyes boring through him .

_Yes... Yes, Miles... I'm here..._

"Doctor..."

"Yes... Yes I'm here.. "

a pair of big blue eyes were swimming in his vision as he regained consciousness.

"I'm... here, Miles..."

"Oh, good. " his child replied, flippantly. "I was wondering when you would wake up..."

......................................

The doctor woke to find himself prone on a bed, wires leading from his arm into the machines keeping his body alive... And a short orange figure, arms folded, staring death at him from across the room.

Two pairs of blue eyes, the exact mirror of each other, met.

"Hello... father. "

Robotnik chuckled and lay his head back on his pillow.

"So..." He choked through a ragged throat, "it wasn't all a dream, then..."

"No..." The orange figure entered the room, arms folded and face set in the same stoic way, twin tails swishing like vipers. "It sure wasn't."

"How much... did you read?"

The fox ambled over the room, arms still folded. "Everything."

The doctor nodded. "Then you know the truth..."

"We've been fighting for years..." Sad blue eyes fixed on his, their owner shaking his head. "why didn't... you tell me?"

The doctor coughed. "I... thought you were dead for the longest time..." The man looked over his child sadly. "And then you showed up... with that damned hedgehog... you had your own life then, your own path to follow..." the doctor glared at his own hands. "One very different to mine..."

The fox fiddled with something in his hands. The doctor looked... and understood.

It was okay. He had had enough of being the evil tyrant Doctor Robotnik.

"You... remind me so much of your mother..." the doctor raised a trembling arm and gently stroked the young Fox's face. Tails flinched, but didn't recoil. The doctor's voice cracked as he spoke. "It... broke me when I lost you both... I don't suppose I have been quite myself ever since..."

Cold blue eyes met his. "How did she die?"

The human coughed, tasting copper. 

"You... had power..." He wiped at his mouth with a hand. " Unprecedented power... the GUN... wanted to take you... more interested in producing soldiers than children...." The human looked over his son with morbid grief. "You were two years old... already so intelligent, but still... a _child..._ "

Tears were now streaming down the man's face, and Miles understood that he was speaking to the man Robotnik used to be.

"Your mother..." The doctor went on, blue eyes brimming with tears, "tried to take you... escape... their pursuit robots... killed her... thought they'd killed you, too... " He buried his face in his hands, fat tears leaking down to his orange moustache. "I wasn't there to save her, Miles... I wasn't there to save _you..._ I lost _everything...._ and when you showed up again... alive... after all of the things I had done I couldn't bring myself to tell you... "

Miles simply watched the display with the cold, unfeeling stare of a Robotnik. He looked down to the syringe in his hand.

"I think we both know how this ends..." The fox said, solemnly .

The human nodded weakly.

"I understand..." He said, voice tired and weak. "After everything I have done... I understand..."

The fox prepared the needle, but paused as the doctor lightly brushed his hand.

"Miles... while I am still lucid..." The doctor's blue eyes fixed on his. "I loved your mother... and you... more than anything in the world... I'm sorry things had to be... The way they were..."

Miles nodded. "If it's any consolation... This won't hurt."

"Thank you, my boy..."

Doctor Ivo Robotnik took a moment to absorb his son's face, before closing his eyes and leaning back in his pillow. 

The last thing he remembered, as the needle entered his arm, was the smiling faces of his wife, and their young son, in a life that had been cruelly taken from him.

Clear fluid entered his bloodstream, and he remembered no more.

.............................................

_Ten years later..._

"Yes... yes I know! Okay, I'll... Okay!! "

sonic smiled and shook his head as Tails drifted over the kitchen, cell phone clasped to his ear while he attempted to gather the ingredients for two mugs of tea. The now fully grown orange fox - curiously tall for a Mobian - appeared comically flustered.

"Yeah, I know it's your mom's birthday! I'll be there after I finish my work!! " Tails erratically dropped two teabags into the mugs and flinched as the kettle whistled. Twin tails flicked to and fro. "I don't know... Six-ish? I have the old man to take care of too, y'know... okay... okay... love you, bye..."

with that, the fox flicked off his cell phone and leaned against the counter, palms rubbing tired eyes. Sonic grinned as he crosses the kitchen and leaned beside him.

"Wife issues?" The hedgehog smirked.

Tails sighed and scratched beneath the red safety goggles he habitually wore. 

"We're not even married yet, and she's already nagging my ears off..." The fox groaned, pouring sugar into the two mugs.

"On the ball and chain already, huh little buddy?" Sonic snarked.

"Eat a dick, hedgehog."

"Gladly. Whose?"

Tails glanced at his older brother and wore a sly grin as he piled biscuits onto a plate.

"I dunno, is it black and red and edgier than a machete?"

Sonic raised an index finger to his brother. 

"Hey, I don't have _anything_ for Shadow..."

"Uh huh, sure..." Tails set his plate down and raised his hands to his face, mocking Sonic's voice. "'oh Shadow, you wanna race? Oh Shadow, you have such cool rocket shoes! Ooh shadow, you wanna kiss and make out? Oooooh!'"

Sonic wore his most unamused expression. "You're treading on thin ice, little dude."

Tails dropped his mocking act as he turned back to making the tea. "Come on man, the guy hasn't got his rocks off in years. Just ask him on a date and get it over with already."

Sonic folded his arms. "I'll consider it. By the way, what was that about 'the old man'? "

Tails shrugged, spoon clinking as he stirred the tea. "Y'know, Vanilla's birthday and all that. He'll wanna come. Dirty old cretin has a... thing for Cream's mom."

sonic chuckled. "That's ironic, given his history..."

Tails picked up the mugs in one hand and the plate of biscuits in the other. "What am I supposed to do, say no? It's not like he's the same... guy anymore. Everyone understands that."

"Yeah... " replied Sonic, arching an eyebrow. "Ever since that unfortunate memory loss..."

"Freakin' tragic... " deadpanned the fox, making to leave the kitchen.

"Hope you don't kiss your future mother-in-law with that mouth!" Sonic winked as his younger brother headed for the kitchen door. His smile dropped a fraction as he considered. "And tails?'

The fox paused and turned back to his brother. Sonic grinned.

"I'm proud of you, little buddy. You're doing amazing work... "

Tails nodded. "Thanks, dude." a malicious grin split his face. "And y'know, if you and the grumpus ever want a sprog... you know who to call! "

The hedgehog offered his brother a one-fingered salute, and the fox cackled as he left the kitchen.

Sonic sighed, smiling sadly. Tails didn't know that he knew, but... The fox really was like his old man.

..................................................

"Hey Ivo, tea up..."

The old man jerked in surprise as the fox approached, mugs and biscuits in hand. He smiled beneath a grey streaked moustache and wiped his hands off on filthy denim overalls.

"Oh Miles, you're such a kind young man..." The man smiled warmly as he accepted his tea. "Thank you, my boy."

"Don't mention it... " Tails replied, leaning against the workbench where the human was happily tinkering with toy robots.

"You know, you remind me so much of my wife..." The man said, gazing wistfully into nothing. "I wish I could remember her..."

Tails wore a solemn expression as he watched the old man, who they had 'found wandering the woods with no memory' ten years ago, as he tried and failed to remember the love of his life.

The fox apparently wasn't as ruthless as his father had proclaimed. Despite everything, he had been unable to finish off the man who had given him life.

"We're off at half five... " the fox went on, crunching into a biscuit. "You need help getting ready? "

The human fixed him with a frown. "I'm not that far gone, young man! " the doctor huffed, before sipping his tea. "Even though my memory is hazy!"

Tails smiled. "What do you remember?" He said, a smiling yellow face in his mind. "Of your wife?"

The man wore a sad smile as he thought. "Only that she was kind... " the man said, blissful in the memory. "and that I loved her very much."

Tails nodded, staring into his drink. "I guess that's what matters most..."

For a moment, the human looked to his fox caretaker with fascination, as though a memory had struck him. He raised a hand and lightly stroked it against the Fox's face, struggling to remember.

"Everything okay, Ivo?" Tails said, concern in his voice.

The human remained silent for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Never mind... I must be going senile..." The old man yawned, suddenly tired. "I believe I shall retire now, Miles... have a snooze before miss Vanilla's birthday meal..." He heaved himself out of his chair and began to dodder away, muttering to himself. He turned for one last look at the fox, again a flicker of recognition in his face. "Do you... think flowers would make an appropriate gift?"

Tails grinned and nodded. "That sounds fine, old man."

The human harrumphed and shuffled away, hands behind back as he muttered about 'youths today' and 'no respect for their elders'.

And behind him, the last Robotnik sighed as he watched his father depart.

................................................

_Eighteen years ago._

"He's beautiful..." The fox-woman cooed as she cradled a small golden bundle in her arms. Big violet eyes brimmed with tears as she looked toward her human partner. "Isn't he, Ivo?"

Ivo Robotnik couldn't speak. couldn't breathe. couldn't move.

All he could do was look at the sleeping bundle... after everything, all the prejudice, all the abuse, all the people who had tried to destroy his dreams... the tiny infant was _his child._

The doctor's voice was barely a whisper. "He's... perfect..."

The fox-woman smiled at him. "Do you want to hold him?"

Ivo couldn't breathe as the tiny bundle was gently placed in his arms. The little orange face scrunched as the infant slept.

"Hello, little one..." The doctor croaked, sitting so his shorter partner could share in the moment. Tears wet his eyes as he looked upon _his son_. He gently tickled at the child's head with a finger. "You... are a very special child, my boy..." Ivo whispered as his partner wrapped an arm around his. "And one day, there will be lots of special little children just like you... lots of little siblings..."

His heart leapt as the infant briefly opened his eyes, looking at the moustachioed face above with fascination. Blue eyes, the very image of the human's, fixed on his.

Elsa leaned in close and whispered to the human doctor. "What... shall we name him? "

Ivo considered for a moment, gently stroking his son. "Miles..." He replied, planting a kiss atop her head. "I like Miles..."

...............................................


End file.
